ECO EYE: 3 Easy Eco Swaps!

If Earth Day has you wondering how you can do you bit to help keep our planet green, then look no further than these three easy swaps...

CLEVER COFFEE

If (like us) you’re first in line at the coffee shop each morning, it might be hard to think about parting ways with one of the most unsustainable habits we have...the disposable cup!

Thousands of disposable coffee cups are sent to landfill everyday in New Zealand alone and with increased numbers of us drinking the good stuff, things are set to rise unless we take action now.

But breaking this bad habit doesn’t have to mean giving up your daily cup of Joe. Switching out these environmental nightmares for a reusable alternative such as a KeepCup or travel mug will do the job and may even save you a wee bit on your bill whilst you’re at it!

And of course if you’re a coffee shop owner, you’re just as responsible for making a change. Switching to an alternative such as a biodegradable cup made from materials other than plastic, will go a long way in helping deal with this growing issue until a more permanent solution is found!

BRAINY BRUSHING

It may surprise you to hear that something as simple as brushing our teeth impacts the environment in a large way but it’s not just the amount of water you need to think about whilst you clean your pearly whites!

Every year we get through 3.6 BILLION manual toothbrushes globally! Most of these are 
non- recyclable and end up in landfills or spread across our oceans, killing marine life and destroying ecosystems.

Replacing your plastic brush with a bamboo one from The Humble Co. will help reduce the number of brushes thrown away each year and protect our precious marine life.

If you want to make this simple swap now, we sell these awesome brushes in our Camp St store!

SMART SHOPPING

With the announcement that supermarket chain New World plan to scrap all single use plastic bags by the end of the year, it’s no surprise that our shopping habits need a reality check!

Around 1.6 BILLION single use plastic bags are used every year in New Zealand! If we each used a single use plastic bag more than once instead of throwing it away, we’d half this number.

An easy swap to make is to purchase a few reusable shopping bags, it’s a one time switch that makes a huge difference to the environment and gets rid of all those plastic bags lying around in the drawer at home (we all have them)!

Of course another option is to simply use your single use plastic bag more than once whilst ensuring it gets recycled with other soft plastics once you’re done. This might not solve the problem but a tiny measure like this will go a long way towards helping reduce the issue.

Any one of these simple swaps can be made without impacting our everyday life and the results for our country and planet would be huge! Make a change, make a swap!